Texting by Chipka
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Description
There is a kind of buzz that comes as more sensation than sound: a thing, he thinks, like the chirp of a bat picked up on FM radio. He feels it as a faint, electrical vibration in the depths of the flesh.
He thinks of Pavlovian dogs as he reaches for his smart phone.
He reads this moment’s all-important message. It comes, he realizes, from Topper, or maybe Tang. They share a dedicated account for moments such as this. He knows them well. He has never met them, not face-to-face.
>Did You Get Them?<
He types a response. YES.
After a moment: >Good. Get On The Next Brown Line South. Put Them On And Look East When You Reach The Next Stop. You Will See It.<
It is Tang who sends the orders. He knows this much. Tang (The Russian one) is easy to distinguish by his typographical habits. It is a digital accent: the way Tang (no one but Topper knows his real name) has learned English.
This project, he thinks, is Tang’s idea. He has heard of similar movements: in Moscow, and in the industrial nightmares of other cities like Smolensk and Omsk, or post-gulag Irkutsk. He has heard rumors of similar projects in New York, Prague, Budapest and Tokyo. There is the embryo of another in Los Angeles: a punk version, connected, he has heard, to the images of Kurt Cobain and Josephine Baker in black leather and linticular vinyl. Test runs, he thinks, each containing the nascent code of a new social organism.
I WILL TELL YOU WHEN I SEE IT, he types.
***
There’s probably a lot more to this story, as I’ve been thinking a lot about emergent meta-organisms, and how artists and (strangely enough) pornographers are always the first to take advantage of new technological developments.
Recently, I’ve started seeing the beginnings of something called “Locative Art,” a kind of digital art form that works on a viral level. Viral art has been around for quite a long time, and “Locative Art” or whatever it’s likely to be called in the upcoming decades is—quite simply—a new twist in the genre’s evolution. It’s purely digital, but it’s “locative” in that you can now see it anywhere (in theory.) It’s no longer dependent on display screens. With proper Virtual Reality gear (data goggles) you can “see” James Dean standing at the bus stop beside you, or River Phoenix eating lunch at a particular McDonalds with Josephine Baker, Curt Cobain, and Leonardo DaVinci. So far, no one has done anything like that, but there are examples of whole streets being “covered” in poppies and the Death Star from Star Wars looming just on the horizon. It’s viral art because those who enjoy it are not necessarily members of the conventional art community; it’s far from mainstream, even if it involves mainstream subjects like Snow White’s Seven Dwarfs. You need VR capabilities in order to see it, or even to interact with it, and…well…we’re not in the habit of walking around, seeing the world with a virtual reality overlay given to us by high-tech glasses and fancy touch-interface gloves. Not yet, anyway.
I took this picture yesterday, on the way home after a photographic weekend with Corey. I was struck by the stark light and well, I just had to capture it.
As always, thank you for viewing, reading, and commenting, and I hope you're all off to a great week.
Comments (25)
jocko500
so many is texting these days. I can not spell and old time for I like to talk to people ear to ear on the phone. so do not text me. cool shot
danapommet
No way that would work, in any underground section, of the Boston (MBTA)subway system. Nothing works down there. Sweet shot. Dana
KatesFriend
An interesting concept. I remember one historian (name forgotten) remarking how the technology of the printing press so radically changed our world from the medieval to the modern. From agrarian through the industrial to the information age. He postulated that we may well be on the cusp of a new Reformation. The character stands alone at this empty station - he might well be alone anyways. But he is so connected to an other world with invisible ephemeral wires. Could Gutenberg have even imagined it? As always your narration is so though provoking, fast paced and impressively concise without sacrificing mood or detail.
Sepiasiren
great shot of a modern marvel--lol....
beachzz
k--i so get this--txtng hs bcome the nwst way 2 talk u dont have 2 no how 2 spel or ne othr stff, u just need a fone n fngers n thats all. c u L8tr
myrrhluz
"Kurt Cobain and Josephine Baker in black leather and linticular vinyl." I want the glasses to see that. It would be like seeing Queen Victoria talking to a time lord. Wait a minute, I've seen that. I love when different times and realities mix in fiction. It has been done on film from the ridiculous (Fred Astaire dancing with a vacuum cleaner) to the hugely entertaining (Trials and Tribble-ations. But virtual reality, that's a whole new level. And the idea of something being there that only those properly equipped can see while others walked around totally oblivious is intriguing. Especially if it is connected to some kind of underground movement with all the secrecy and attempts by the authorities to figure it out what the groups are saying to each other. I love the lighting! It takes a very common scene and turns it into something unusual and perhaps covert. I love Marilyn's comment!
kgb224
Outstanding capture and story my friend.
ToniDunlap
Stories are always great, so descriptive to your image. Always a journey with you Chip. Applause!
blinkings
Nice one mate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britglyph
helanker
Marilyn has now tought me what texting is. I never use sms. I like alot what you did with this shot and your story is as usual fun reading.
durleybeachbum
Scary story! I think I'm one of the RON (Reality or Nothing) movement in Dennis Potters last work 'Cold Lazarus'.
jmb007
bonne photo!
Bothellite
There is a moment in one's life when you get "old" (if you survive), you tilt, and you begin to question coolness as displaced by plain old moldy logic. That's a bad place to be. It doesn't foster innovation and I feel that. I need this kind of injection -- thanks for the serum!
jac204
beachzz sums it up very well. Great image and narrative.
MrsRatbag
What they all said.... the shot is great, but it's your storylet that is the wonderful thing here. (I don't text--either I was born knowing how to spell or my Catholic school early years really made an lsting impression--I just can't bring myself to write something spelled that way and with no punctuation!)
flavia49
wonderful!!
marybelgium
super !
icerian
You have catched mood of our every-day world. Well done!
sandra46
another great mood photography! the way the guy is looking at his cell is really intriguing!
romanceworks
Funny how a tiny electronic thingy captures us so completely. Great shot. I imagine you would be quite good at viral art as your mind is so imaginative. CC
praep
Really cool scene - I like the colors very much.
groegnitram
technology makes me wonder, not only where we are, it is so hard to locate! it is even more hard to get any idea of the direction we move towards. a virtual life is already there, our voices and words in this little electronically universe, right beside our reality, it hums and exists. it can entertain us, it can control us, it can help us and it can hinder us. thanks for sharing this, it took me away for a while from my thoughts :)
auntietk
What a terrific premise! I can see how that sort of VR thing could become addictive to a certain type, how far they could go. It reminds me of something ... memory of a book? a TNG plot? ... tickling at the edges of my brain. Someone so addicted to the fantasy that they become lost ... not caring that people in the "real" world can see them, can see what they're doing with thin air. Excellent!
Meisiekind
Oh I'm so glad I can vent a bit! This very telling image just brings back the memory of this recent business trip! I was disgusted by the bad manners of some of my colleagues sitting with their Blackberries ALL the time - during presentations, during conversations, during meals... I found it just so rude!!! Anyway - I like your story and Tara's comment! Let's hear more....
lucindawind
its amazing that everyone cant get along without these nowdays ! what did we do before this lol ... great story and shot